This story appears in FCA Magazine’s November/December 2015 issue. Subscribe today!
In the coaching world, a whole lot can happen in one year. For me, the past year was extremely transitional. I had coached at the University of Nebraska for 24 years, but then spent four months at Youngstown State before moving on to Liberty University, where I’m coaching now.
After all that time at Nebraska—working under three different head coaches—I really thought I would be there forever. But in all that’s happened, it has since become obvious to me that God did not want me at Nebraska. At first, though, I wasn’t getting it!
As coaches, sometimes we can think it’s all about our sports or our careers, but God moves us. And for the Christian coach, it’s so much more than just that.
For Christ-following coaches, a firing might be God nudging us to reassess what’s important to us: family, ministry and God’s sovereign plan to advance His Kingdom.
Let’s start with family, specifically marriages. Marriage was the first team God created. He designed it to be a covenant of unbroken faithful commitment between a man and a woman, and it’s the greatest parable of the gospel. Jesus is the Groom in covenant with His followers, the bride of Christ. I’ve been married to my wife, Molvina, for 31 years but, sadly, I lost track of her at times in my quest for sports, and even ministry. I was deceived by what I justified as advancing God’s Kingdom, but I was wrong! Molvina is my first ministry and the love of my life, and it took me being fired at Nebraska to realize she and my family had taken too much of a back seat in my life.
After getting fired in January, I followed former Nebraska coach Bo Pelini to Youngstown State. You could say I spent four months there "in the wilderness." My family was still waiting to relocate from Nebraska, so I was alone, weeping in rebellion and eventual repentance. It was painful, but God was doing surgery on my heart, breaking me of my pride. My will was broken, and then God began the restoration process. He gave me a new passion for Him, Molvina and my family, and ministry as I submitted to Him and was prayerfully saturated in His Word.
Later in the spring though, my old friend Turner Gill called to offer me a position on his coaching staff at Liberty University. This, I felt, was more than just sports. I had coached with Turner for 13 years at Nebraska, and it was always about so much more than football. It was about Jesus. He loves Jesus, so do I, and now Jesus was bringing two brothers back together again.
For years, it felt like I was shoveling the “opposition to Jesus” snow with a hand shovel. Praise God for that shovel, but as I began to research Liberty University and saw their bold expression of Christ and vast resources in creative media expressions through sports and other venues, they didn’t have a hand shovel. They had a snowplow!
I didn’t leave Youngstown State because of opposition to Christ. Instead, I joined Liberty because I sensed that God wanted me to get behind His “snowplow” to pave a path of bold glorification of Jesus Christ in sports across America and this entire planet.
No matter how heavy that snow falls, God’s people in the sports world should faithfully bring their snowplows or shovels and allow Jesus to do “His greater works” through them. Whether they work at an entity that openly honors Him or one of the many institutions that are hiding Him—how could God not honor an act of worship like that?
My story over the past year has had its ups and downs, but ultimately it’s about God’s perfect provision and plan, and one that can now be used as I minister to others through my experience.
If you are a coach or not—whether you're at a steady job, a new one, or searching for His next step—think about what God might be trying to teach you in the calm or in the midst of the storm. Be confident in your calling, and submit to Him—wherever that may lead you.
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